The long running screen flicker problem is still running. The Dell guys have come to the end of software options for stopping this flicker so now they are coming tomorrow to change over the motherboard for a new one. It seems to me it was a new one in the first place. You can't fault the service time they have put in to track this down. Maybe this is the answer.
The first agenda item today was getting to the playground that did not happen two days ago when Evie fell asleep. This one we have used lots at Port Arlington on the hill above the ferry enclosure. Evie was going well on the flying fox until she wasn't. It was the platform she had trouble with while waiting for Nana to arrive she went off into the sand. Nothing that a babycino and a muffin could not fix. Then it was back in time for a swim at the beach. The forecast was for rain this afternoon so we quickly went across and Charlie came as well. He was right into it, literally crawled into the water. It is meant to be quiet time now, after lunch, especially after Charlie has had a nappy change, as the whole neighbourhood knows that he does not like a nappy change.
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About 30 mins drive out of Geelong at Anakie is a Fairy Park with high quality animatronic attractions. You never know what you are going to get until you give it a try but this one has every fairy tale you can think of spread across a 1km walking trail also dotted with castles, dragons and other assorted characters including Ents, Griffins, Hydras and not forgetting the one horned pony. Evie had a few startled moments when a tree or a frog started talking to her as she walked passed. Asher was all action and on top of the whole show especially books she knew well and here they were dancing and singing in front of her.
Timing the sleep periods is the trick. Yesterday Rick was all set to get Evie to the playground and within one minute of driving she fell asleep and stayed that way for an hour and there was no playground. So we tried the old walk along the beach trick and after a few grumbles she was right into running full speed. There was even a face plant into the sand. She looked back and said that silly weed and kept right on going. Charlie came down as well and we had the beach to ourselves again. The breeze was ok and the Sun was warm. It took until 9:00pm after some extra quiet time to get her sleepy.
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| going up |
Went off for the grocery update as we have to make sure Charlie gets his required intake which seems to be twice what Evie eats, seeing he weighs the same as her. The babycino is fine down to the second half but once the chocolate runs out then that's it. Across at the supermarket it was a trolley ride all the way and she ate most of an apple at the same time. Nana got her a plate and cup set which she carried all the way around and nursed it in the car. I was unloading the bags into the back of the car and she said to me she would be "upset if the plate went into the car and not on her lap". Hmmmm. Now it has been placed in the lower draws so she can get it out herself at lunch time.
We have two grandies running around now and I have to squeeze this write up between activities. The first night was fairly good sleeping once the sleeping happened after a rocky start. We got in a short session over at the beach yesterday afternoon with Evie running with shells and grass balls too heavy to lift.
We have had the word, the grandies are on their way. I have been running around trying to get anything below knee height to above waist height and it is not going so well. We have had this before and I cannot remember how it was done. Some cupboards have been barricaded, the spare toilet seat unloaded and the walker uncovered. There are boxes of tempting photos laying everywhere so I guess vigilance is the key.
Had the Dell man logging in remotely to my new laptop this morning. This monitor off/on business is perplexing them. He poked around and found a driver that was out of date, despite the maintenance tools saying otherwise. This was duly updated and soon after seen to have made no difference as the off/on is still happening. An old hard drive I had been using is also causing some trouble so I went straight into Geelong to get a new one and am copying it now. Office works also sell these plastic carpet slabs that you can place under your chair. So I am walking out of the store with this large wind sail like structure slicing at people as they pass. I located a bicycle store at the opposite end to where the car is parked and the meter is ticking with 20 minutes left. I got the plastic sheet back to the car, then fast walked it to the bike store, bought two tubes and got back to the car with 5 minutes to spare. We have had the Geelong Parking Police on our tails before. They will stop writing the ticket if you call out.
We had some hail just now and you could feel the temperature drop. I am working thru the short story book. There is only one way you can fit around 30 authors into 300 pages and that is to have some even shorter short stories. Some of these only go for three pages. The theme at the moment is outback dust, dirt, heat and blokes walking from place to place. There have been about eight stories in a row like that and four are from Henry Lawson. Someone must mention rain in one of these yarns.
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| Henry gets mentioned on stamps more than once |
We noticed the large group of visitors going down to the beach for Friday night drinks and then they were followed by the couple who went to the fish shop to get the fabled fishnchips on the beach. I made a mental note to get down soon after to survey the scene. It was five days later but the Sun had come out this morning although the wind was strong,. I filled the bag with cans, bottles and one of the house glasses was also left. There were plenty of butts and a cap plus the usual other papers, plastics, rope and rubbish. On the way back I grabbed a toy off the fence that has been directly in our view for the last week. I figure they had long enough to come back and get it but now it is binned. Don't leave anything laying around on my watch.
The birthday trees are bearing fruit already or one is. During the Fairy cleanup, some Fairy dust must have drifted further to the back amongst the trees but not as far as the apricot tree. There are at least 6 nectarines but no apricots as yet. Now we will have to get some sort of bird protection as the old netting is a bit holey. Perhaps I should wear that stuff while bike riding. The fairies have done a good job of sprucing up their playground ready for the visitors next week.
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| Starey the Fairy from Donaldson's Dairy |
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| green nectarine |
We had some warm days but it is wet now so a good time to unload the video. I have been watching a few youtubes where people are using cameras on the end of fishing hooks to film the fish being caught. There seem to be elaborate ways of trying to control the camera in this situation. We tried some walking and videoing while in a stooped position but trying to film something underwater without actually seeing what it is. I have rolled two tries together here. The gelatinous sac at the end I have seen many times and there are lots right now. There are two things here, the balloon is an egg sac from a nearby worm. You can see the worm sign just to the left. Sounds like a scene from Dune. My idea for filming whilst walking will work better on one of those fixed selfie sticks.
The tree man came yesterday and trimmed up the olive tree. We now have a gap between the tree and the house roof. Sometimes there are scraping noises which we don't need. There has been a huge loss of olives though due to the cutting back but there still seems to be a good coverage of buds to be seen. Debbie is giving the Fairy garden a makeover before Evie and Charlie arrive. I went on the attack with the lawn mower and also did all the edges with the trimmer. There was one neighbour walking passed three times and always with a hint about doing his next. That old lark. It is annoying when the council zip passed on the other side of the street with a tractor to cut all the edges off but leave our side of the street for us. Sat on the beach for two hours yesterday.
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| bruises are starting to come out |
I have got birds on the brain after having been swooped a few times. I was spraying under the overhang rafters for the annual spider cleanout. Very nasty ugly black bodied brutes. The big concentration was at the back door. Six largish now dead ones on the ground now. I was brushing the webs off a day later when a magpie in hurry, flew thru the walkway and alighted on the lemon tree. One step forward and it would have been a beak in the chest. Then he starts chasing a pidgeon. That part is not so bad as their coo cooing nest building can be a problem.
Some good weather of late doesn't mean I have done any swims. Rather more water walking while I get this knee mobile. It is freeing up pretty well. There has been some pesky plant growth on the beach in some inconveneint spots so I tried some plant cleanup rather than rubbish cleanup. The council will do the annual bulldoze of the sand in another 8 weeks, so there is no need to get too heavy with it. The plants are some type of long stork grass but the root system is gynormous with huge spikes for drilling down. I think I will just stick to rubbish cleanup.
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| at least they point down into the sand |
The olivarian was supposed to come today to give the olive tree its annual haircut. It is a good thing I did not wait for him. We have left it a bit late as it is, becuase you can see a huge number of buds sprouting. In theory it is only the upper branches that will ber trimmed. I went across to the beach and got my knee into the water for a bit of wading, it seems to be coming along swimmingly. Another bike consequence is the split tube that deflated my tyre becuase of the impact. These are the hardest type of flat to repair but I gave it a go. It needed two patches at the split site but after 24 hours of curing there is still a leak. This tube is 700 x 35 and the spare I have is 700 x 25 for some reason, so does not fit the tyre properly.
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| how deflating |
The rain has stayed away today which means I can test out my bruised knee with a walk across to the beach for a rubbish pick up. I brought the trusty long armed pincers to get down into the hole I mentioned a few days back. No problemo. I was able to reel that reel in within easy reach. Strong Westerly winds had prevailed for the last few days and lots of small stuff was strewn about. I got half a bag including plastic bottles and a coke can. My knee was stiff going down the hill but otherwise not too bad.
I was in Drysdale this morning posting off a birthday present and doing a few other bits. I am short on reading material of late, still waiting for a secondhand delivery. However there are plenty of secondhand outlets right here. I got two books for a $1 each. The first one is a book of Australian short stories. The first of which is about a convict gang in the depths of Western Tassie. Now I have travelled in the exact localities this story describes and they sound very accurate to me and even though parts of the story are true, it is a fiction that fits well with the geography.
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| dodgy bridge Tassie 1980 |
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| Tree Island Gordon River |
Shane Miller has been on a three week walking tour of Western Victoria and on his way back to Melbourne called in for a coffee catchup. His walking was hot in places and distrupted in others. This afternoon I went for a short ride and got dive bombed by a bird which caused me to fall off. I have a few scrapes. My right knee took some of it but I have it wrapped in a cold pack now which is working as there is not much swelling and there is full movement. So pretty lucky, as it was downhill and an island crossing narrowed the road just where I was. The bird must have known and timed his attack for maximum effect. He just sat on the wires watching me pick myself up.
Not for Debbie that is. I dropped her off at the Gull bus at around 7:00am and she will be heading to high 20's low 30's for a few days. In the meantime I have a large pot of pumpkin soup she made for me which must mean its back to cold again. We did get to try out the replacement umbrella last week ,as last years has succumbed to the elements. This one is a bit bigger and stronger in its rigging. I have continued thru the Cincotta photo book and found some more Williamstown. I also found Heide Austin's name in very small print at the back of the book, meaning she was one of the pre publishing orderers that got her name printed.
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| From the book. A drone view of the RifleRange boat harbour. |
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| perfect shade |
I am still chasing my monitor problem. I have proven that a monitor directly attached to the laptop is fine but when attached via the docking station has the issue. I asked the Dell man if he could send a whinge back to Microsoft about the changes they made yesterday to Windows 11 File Explorer. He said try their feedback hub. This is an online form to type in your complaint/suggestion. I put in my 2 cents worth but not sure what that will do though. In the meantime I have one monitor that works and one that goes black for 2 seconds.
I received a package from E.Roberts. There is only one E. Roberts that I know of but I am sure she had help posting this rather heavy box. It was a birthday book of photos that must be two or three kilos. These photos were taken one per day, for each day of 2022 and mostly in and around Melbourne. I have had a good look at the first 100 pages. I am wondering if the photographer will drift down to the Bellarine for a shot or two. There is one of Bell's Beach but the most favoured suburb is Williamstown. There must be five or six shots there so far.
Haven't been across for a clean up for at least 10 days. I took the snorkel and video as well but decided to just concentrate on using the Kogan camera without too much distraction of new snorkel or fish or wind etc. The Kogan instructions are threadbare and typical of an Asian origin. However, I now get what is happening. Yes I know the button to turn it on and that shows a blue LED at the front and a green LED at the back. The other button starts the video and the green LED flashes. When you stop the video a countdown starts to switch off the camera. That was my problem. Also it is hard to see that tiny green LED when underwater. It switches off completely not just into some standby mode. The beach itself is relatively clean. I did get a half a bag of small stuff and I left a pair of delapidated thongs on a rock. The big item was a fishing tackle which was just out of reach down a rock hole. I will have to get the tongs for that one.
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| might be a metre down in this hole |
Pixie's are a mixed bunch but generally they are meant to be helpers. Not sure if Pure Bookkeeping found Pixie or the other way around. Pixie is an English online workflow management program. They are fairly new and competing with established websites like ClickUp and Asana. Pixie were all about accountants and not bookkeepers, then Pure Bookkeeping came along with procedures for bookkeepers that are already in place. PB explained the how and the why of all things bookkeeping but in this day and age of button pushers it is never enough. So Pixie shared their expertise, to set up Pure Workflow which explains the when of bookkeeping. Debbie initially left it to others. There are more qualified people than me for this. They will do a good job, make sense of it, make it flow, do it right. *$!@@**
After two years of hard graft Debbie has had to become an expert in Workflow Management. The Pixie people were now aware of someone new, hard on their heels. "We can't update your work as we have ours to do." "We'll slot that in when we can." ect etc. OK you can have your own Pixie Button. Whenever you have something new, you press this magic Pixie button and your templates and worksheets will populate. Months of 4:00am starts culminated in a complete update and overhaul of all training courses and procedures. Now for the Pixie button. Nothing happened. The dreaded time zone problem now comes into play. Debbie wakes up the English bosses who will look into it in the morning. No! We have made promises to have this ready. He gets up and gets the Portuguese office to work on the problem, as their time zone is still daylight. Hooray the Pixie Button has worked this morning. All PB maintenance on workflow can now be done by PB staff. OK What's next?
I went chasing some individual stamps and I have been working thru another online system called Colnect. I located the few that I was interested in but made the order up to ten stamps for good measure. Pierre said allow at least two weeks maybe three. It was my first time using this system. I did not add tracking to the letter. Five weeks later it is a noshow and according to Pierre most likely lost. He was happy to split the cost but I said can you refill the order and add tracking. Next day he had done just that and at no cost, saying he did not like it when letters went astray.
Debbie did some tricky balloon work as part of this birthday treat not to forget the sausage rolls. Two large trays of them. We stayed on for an extra dose of grandies when the parents went out for an evening meal and some Simon Taylor wit at Jimmy Watsons's. Asher went to sleep fast, after a long long days partying but Kaia had other ideas about sleeping, like I will only do it if you are holding me. Eventually she did settle but it took at least an hour. We got back to the Springs in time for me to mow the lawns as the green bin is due and we missed it last time. The drive back was slow. All the way at 60kmh as one lane was dedicated to bike riders going around the Bay in a Day. I did this myself some yar back and we never got our own lane back then. Last night the Il Lombardia was raced in Italy over the top of Madonna del Ghisallo. That's another one we have ridden up ourselves. It was 10 yar ago, all the way to the monuments and museums at the top.
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| D35A |
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| Mmmmm.. Cakes |
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| All in Pink |
Got the bike out for another loop around Willie. I took the seaside route, passed the beach and the Seagulls oval to the time ball tower and then along the esplanade there. There are a few high apartment blocks going up in some of that old industrial land that has been laying around for years. You will be pleased to know that the road around the coast has reopened after being closed for months. Bikes could always get through. The main street was not too busy however I continued onto the local supermarket to get a pane di casa.
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| the open road |
Have made it back to Willie for some more birthday fun tomorrow but are here early for haircuts. In the meantime I went for a short ride around Willie, called into the chemist and generally rode around town. We have printed a birthday certificate with a printer that hardly gets used and the black cartridge seems to be clagged. We will be on the bike again tomorrow morning so maybe can find the right ink cartridge. Have I mentioned the hair cutting, whereby the lady who cuts hair here in the Village, lives back home near Drysdale but does not cut hair there, only here.
This is the eighth book I have read in the Bujold Vorkosigan space show. I am trying to get the rest of them as secondhand books and the last one I paid for was damaged in storage, so they are poking around for another one. The 'Memory' book has a whodunit story line. The long serving security chief has been given early retirement because the memory chip in his head was effected by a virus. It wasn't COVID. I just checked my email and the 'World of Books' are giving me the money back. I also bought some specific map stamps over a month ago and they have not arrived. My internet buying has not worked of late. They were not expensive stamps but I may have to try again with these, as well.
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| See the cover shows 40 years of detailed history in his head |
The Tassie ferry is back in action after its Winter lay off. Boat action of all kinds has increased this month so there is plenty to observe out there on the water. I have two videos from last week. My on again off again monitor problem is improved. I have now bypassed the docking station and am using one monitor only, direct from the laptop. Working with half the real estate when you are used to two screens is a problem. The blanking out has now stopped, so the problem is in the docking station. Now have to figure out the next step. Its cold today but these videos are all sunshine.
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| starfish from above the water |
